'Thank you, Mere, for being so understanding with this case. I love you.'

'You're welcome, Javi, it's what I do for my man and I love you too.'

They were sprawled in bed after a terribly long day; Esposito had been working almost around the clock in the last three days to find the son-of-a-bitch face slasher and this afternoon he and Ryan had finally gotten their man in custody and cracked him like an egg for breakfast. As a result of their hard work, Montgomery had given them the night off and Esposito had gone straight home to his beloved wife, where they'd made love in the afternoon sun while their daughter napped with her turtle in her bed.

Now, sated and satisfied, Meredeth lay spread eagled on her back with Esposito on his side beside her, head propped on one hand and stroking her belly while she studied the ceiling and the shadows coming in by the window. 'See, everyone should have that in the summer.'

'Good sex?'

'Yes, but more widely, a good reason to sweat.' She rolled her head to her left so she could see his beautiful face. 'So tell me again, how did you deduce it was Zach Rota?'

'We had his fingerprint in the blood, but that was the easy part, the hard part was figuring out the why. That's where my partner and I really had to scratch our brains.'

'Wait a tick, how did she even know Zach Rota?'

'They worked together at the chemo clinic, only he was going by the name Zane Rolston, since Zach Rota has a little sticky-fingers problem, in more ways than one now. But anyways, the real problem came from him overhearing a conversation with a producer of Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, he's in for chemo treatment and of course Annabeth being the movie nut she is can't resist asking him about some things. He tells her stuff that's going to press that day, but of course, Zach has no way of knowing that.'

'Kind of like when I was talking to your physiotherapist after you were shot,' she reasoned.

'Yes, just like that. Only difference being, she doesn't know his history or that Zach overhears her saying she's going to email her sister and he assumes she's going to spill secrets from this producer she shouldn't know about. So he bides his time, gains her trust until she decides to invite him over after a shift of volunteering to watch the latest season on her TiVo, and while she's in the bathroom, he poured her a soft drink laced with her prescription pills, then proceeds to slice and dice and finger-paint.'

'Which explains the medical equipment, and also the smashed computer, but why would the man want to do something so vicious and nasty over a trivial thing?'

'Well, it turned out that Zach Rota was a PA on the set during season one. After the blowout between the show's creator and Gareth Mitchell when he was having problems and they cut him loose to get help, Gareth named Zach as the source of the leak for the season finale, which got Zach fired and unable to get work as a PA again since no one trusted him with his alleged blabbermouth.'

'And he thought Annabeth was going to do the same thing by telling her sister about meeting the producer. That is so very sad.' Meredeth sighed. 'How did the sister take the news?'

'It was hard but in the end, the answers no matter how ugly they are always offer comfort. I learned that one from Beckett.'

Esposito scrubbed a hand over his face, studied his bride in the dim light of afternoon. It was barely five, but since they'd been working overtime on this particular case and they had Zach Rota on a stone-cold slam dunk, Montgomery had cut them loose early. It felt good to be home during the daylight, and since he had the night free and clear, he decided to make the most of it with his wife.

'Get dressed.'

'Oh, because I'm so naked now?'

'Well, you could get naked...' Esposito rolled to his side, kissed the back of her neck. 'But...that's why.'

Tessi, having awoken from a late nap, came wandering in, knuckling still-sleepy eyes that popped wide when she saw her daddy home so early. 'Daddy! You home! Dash baddies today?' she asked, rushing over to greet him with a flying hug.

'Yes, princess, I got the baddies today.'

'Good shob, Daddy, feed birdies.'

Meredeth cracked up into a hysterical giggle-fit when Tessi promptly held out her pursed up little fingers to her father and Esposito tapped them with his own. 'Oh you are spending way too much time with Dell Ryan, my love,' she giggled.

'I love Dell, he she-shell.'

'He's special alright. But in the 'special' theme, how would you like to go out for chicken and noodles tonight?'

'Yummy, yummy! An' soup?'

'And soup. Go to your room, I'll meet you in a moment.'

Meredeth watched her daughter scamper out of the room, then back at her man. 'Is this why I'm getting dressed?'

'Unless you want to go out for Chinese like that,' he said, pointing to her cotton pants and bra-less tank-top.

'Give me twenty minutes.'

Meredeth knew many parents had misgivings about taking toddlers into restaurants for a multitude of reasons - picky eaters, poor table manners, general fussiness. But she also knew many parents used dinners at their friends' houses for practice, and Tessi had lost her marbles once or twice with her grandparents or at the Ryan household, but she was getting bigger now, and she'd taken her responsibilities as a big sister to heart, determined to set a good 'sample' she'd told them in borrowing Dell Ryan's word.

Still it wasn't too hard for Tessi to stay behaved since she'd brought her 'purse' with her - the little backpack she toted with her everywhere that had a book, her drawing supplies and a juice-box in a Ziploc bag inside. Crush had to stay home, and Meredeth had felt her mother's heart soften like meringue when she told him that he had to be good while she was gone and it wouldn't be a long time, so he could play or read a story while he waited for her.

They opted for the Bamboo Garden, as it was a family buffet place for a reasonable price. Meredeth watched as Esposito helped Tessi pick out her chicken and noodles, along with some fresh veggies with dip that she loved so much. Her big bad cop, who just that afternoon sweated a hardened criminal down for a confession to murder in the first degree was now spooning his daughter's dinner onto her plate and listening with the same intensity as he had the perp's bragging over his crimes.

'Mama, I tie some yours?' Tessi asked, eying up the colourful veggies in sauce on Meredeth's plate. 'Look yummy.'

'Okay, princess.' She transferred a spoonful of teriyaki peppers and onions to the little girl's plate, briefly wonder if she should have her camera out to take a picture of her reaction to the taste.

Esposito watched his daughter, so determined to get the veggies onto her fork and munched them down,

'Funny feel,' she decided. 'Yummy. Feel funny.'

'In your tummy or your mouth?'

'Mout', Daddy. One more, Mami?' Tessi asked hopefully, and tried again with the next round. She chewed, swallowed and thought about it before shaking her head.

'No like funny feel.'

'Okay, Tessi-boo, the important thing is you tried them.'

'Want more shicken, peas.'

Esposito went to get up, but Meredeth waved him down. 'It's okay, I want to stretch my legs anyways.'

She held out her hand and Esposito watched them go to the buffet, Tessi walking in her side-to-side way as Meredeth steadied her belly with her hand. Half-way, he thought, they were over halfway there.

He smiled at his girls when they came back, Tessi's dark and curly little head bobbing along in front of Meredeth, the plate of chicken clutched hotly in her hands.

'Daddy, look! Shicken! I brr-ing,' she said proudly, soundly like an old-fashioned telephone. She eyed her father using the chopsticks for his noodles. 'What those?'

'These are chopsticks, this is what they use in China to eat their noodles.'

'Shop-ticks. Hard?'

'Easy to learn, hard to perfect,' he told her. 'I've had a lot of practice, so has Mami.'

'I try?'

'Sure. Here.' Esposito picked up two straws, put them in Tessi's left hand. 'Now make a pincer like a crab.'

'Dab, dab, dab. Like Bashin?'

'Like Sebastian, princess,' Meredeth agreed, then accepted the napkin from Esposito to daub at the corners of her eyes when they welled up at the tender fahter-daughter moment. 'Try and grab a piece of chicken.'

'Dab shicken.' Tessi martialed her powers of concentration and on her fourth try, got the bite of chicken from the plate to her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, then smiled. 'I like shop-tick shicken, Mami.'

Esposito had been using his phone to video the whole thing and grinned widely. 'I'm showing this to everyone at work tomorrow.'

Since Esposito had picked out Bamboo Garden for dinner, it was Meredeth's turn to pick the spot for dessert and she went with Roscoe's Sugar Shack as he knew she would. For the most part, Meredeth was a very healthy eater; even when they ate takeout, she always insisted on a salad of some kind to balance whatever they were eating. But she was powerless before ice cream and he'd learned early on with the twins that less than three different flavours in the house was worthy of death by spoon-stabbing.

Roscoe's was, in Meredeth's mind, a perfect example of a New York institution: it had been run by the McCarthy family since nineteen-twenty-two and featured not only twenty-two flavours but also hand-made cones - waffle, sugar, and regular - and sundaes and splits with house-made sauces. In recent years, they'd also added diabetic friendly flavours with sweeteners and skim milk; it was now a standard favourite of Dell Ryan.

Tessi held tight to her daddy's hand and tried to stretch to her toes to see. She tugged his hand impatiently, waited until he was finished speaking to Meredeth. 'Daddy, I see, peas?'

'Sure, up we go,' he said with a pleasant groan, settling her and her back-pack on his hip so she could see the flavours. 'What are you feeling, princess? Lots of chocolate like your pops or sweet and fruity like Mami?'

'I'unno yet. Lossa types.'

They stepped up to the counter and Meredeth ordered for herself the raspberry lemonade sherbet before going to sit down with her waffle bowl, and watched the counter attendant give Tessi little size spoons of different flavours before she tried one and nodded with a wide smile. Esposito pointed to a selection and Meredeth tried for a laugh instead of bursting into tears at the pure familial picture they made. Esposito set Tessi on her feet with her paper cup of ice cream and she held it like a bowl of liquid gold that might spill as she walked over to the table where her mother waited and then climbed onto her chair.

'What kind did you get, Tessi-boo?'

'Go-mel rib-bon. Shocolate an' darmel.'

'Gold Medal Ribbon is a good choice. What about Daddy?'

'Supa-Shocolate.'

Meredeth grinned at Esposito as he came over with his choice of frozen goodness. 'Super Chocolate in a chocolate dipped waffle bowl? Isn't that a little bit of overkill?'

'No such thing when it comes to chocolate.'

'Mami, you tie.' Tessi shoved her tot-sized portion towards Meredeth. 'I share wit' babies.'

'Thank you, princess.' Meredeth dipped her spoon in, took a small mouthful. 'That is tasty.'

'Daddy, you too.'

'It's okay, baby, but thanks for the offer.' Esposito licked the back of his spoon, gave his wife a little wink. He knew the look he was giving her would go right over Tessi's head and that it would make his wife's insides squish like a marshmallow. He watched the look on her face, then his daughter's and shook his head. 'You know, I think this is the best double-date I've ever been on.'

R&R&Enjoy!